Taxing: IRS Star Trek Themed Training Video Cost $60,000

Your tax dollars at work. The IRS now admits that a 2010 training video that parodied the 1960s TV series Star Trek was a mistake. It and a second video that parodied TV's Gilligan's Island are estimated to have cost about $60,000. The agency came under fire after CBS News obtained the Star Trek video under a Freedom of Information request and it went viral on the Internet. The video, shown at the opening of a 2010 training and leadership conference, features IRS workers portraying the characters, including Mr. Spock with fake hair and big ears, along with an elaborate set depicting the control room of the spaceship. The characters (who look and sound like a bunch of tax collectors) are en route to the planet Notax to combat identity theft.

This "Star Trek" parody video was produced by the IRS and served as the opening of a training and leadership conference in 2010. It boldly goes where other government waste has gone before, costing tax-payers $60,000.00 for bad costumes and even worse acting.